Communists, police clash outside Klan-Nazi trial

Communists and police clashed Monday outside the courtroom where the trial began for six Ku Klux Klansmen and Nazis accused of murdering five people at an anti-Klan rally in November. Officers stopped about 20 members of the Communist Workers Party and sympathizers trying to shove their way into the third-floor courtroom and arrested four persons. Superior Court Judge James M. Long was allowing no one to enter the courtroom except at recesses.

Five members of the Communist Workers Party were shot Nov. 3 shortly after a caravan of Klansmen and Nazis arrived at a staging area for a communist-sponsored "Death to the Klan" march. Fourteen Klansmen and Nazis are charged in the deaths. All six men on trial are charged with five counts of the first-degree murder and a single charge of felonious rioting.